Is the Atkins Diet good for cancer prevention?
Not until the inception of “low carb mania” would anyone have thought it wise to limit their intake of healthy fruits, vegetables and whole grain breads and cereals. But, since these are “high carb” foods, you will be limited to small amounts of these nutritious staples on the Atkins plan. Let’s compare the Atkins diet plan to the diet recommendations from the American Cancer Society for optimal cancer prevention: • Eat 5 or more (optimally 9) servings of fruits and vegetables daily; include fruits and vegetables at every meal and for snacks. If one were to consume a fruit and vegetable at each meal and snack this would tabulate to upwards of 85 grams of carbohydrate, the upper end of the “maintenance phase” limit on the Atkins plan. Forget about having any healthy whole grains, legumes or milk products for the rest of the day. This recommendation would be extremely difficult to adhere to even on the maintenance phase of the Atkins plan. • Choose whole grains in preference to processed
